a day of mourning and protest in tunisia the funeral of a slain opposition leader is marred by violence with protesters clashing with police this comes against a backdrop of a general strike that has paralyzed the country. as storage budget amendment for the e.u. which aims to cut brussels red tape may now be undermined by bureaucracy itself as the european parliament threatens to block the deal. and president obama's nominee to head the cia faces catcalls from anti-aids rhone protesters but

gets seemingly an easy ride from lawmakers over his targeted assassinations program . good evening we've got world news and analysis live for you from moscow headquarters i'm lucy california of any watching our team. well internees or clashes between the mourners and the police have marred the funeral of a secular opposition leader whose assassination has lead to chaos on the streets and a crisis in the parliament now violence has erupted near the cemetery as demonstrators threw stones and set cars a blaze while pro police have responded with tear gas now adding to this turmoil the country has been paralyzed by a general strike or despair for notion is following the developments in tunisia as you can see many people have gathered here today for the funeral sofa chokri belaid

one of the most prominent opposition leaders who was killed on wednesday and seems standard situation here on the ground remains very tense and very valid tile and that is definitely struck me in that relative stability that we've seen here although in two thousand and eleven revolution we speak more to people here it's quite a small square but it's packed with people with lads and all of them actually chanting from time to time and to government slogans many people we have been able to speak to here to come here they say that the leader over the party. is personally responsible for this murder well these are very strong accusations actually but we've been hearing that from too many people since he was a symbol of dignity this is a political assassination and that means that the repression and violence is not over this is a crisis. this is

a crisis that people want change again slogans of revolution of democracy protecting working class and poor people that didn't work we can't see it. what happens this is a sign. of what could happen if the if we don't find very quickly some concrete. solutions that we see here today and what we've seen here in the last two days in the. country actually it's a day job it's a mirror situation with what we've seen here that would be so good two years ago in the last two days following the assassination of cook privilege there have been many protests not only in the capital tunis but stroke the country and there have been many more lashes between police and opposition forces and we've heard that at least one police officer was killed but definitely there have been much more injured people this is a very bad situation here in the country bad fears

a growing that it may turn even more violent and it will go even further if there is no solution immediate solution this is why people are saying that they're preparing for the worst well earlier i spoke to author and activist for rosie manji who explained why the assassination of the opposition leader holds such dire consequences for tunisia. the importance of. shukri belayed. cannot be underestimated is assassination as it is a profound. effect on the to listen population he has been an outspoken standing spokesperson for justice in two days here he has been for humanity critical of the government only who he party. and in particular he has enormous credibility within the trade union movement as you can

see there's a general strike been called immediately upon his his assassination but i think that. a new phase in the revolution. in tunis here and you know could lead lucian's you never know what the outcome is is going to be and i think there are. signs that this could easily. disintegrate into some kind of civil civil war going to hopefully that won't happen. well it's been hailed as a historic deal of reducing the spending for the first time ever what the e.u. leaders have struggled to agree upon now can still be undermined by the european parliament well in factions have already said that the budget is simply not acceptable artists are still of reports from brussels. more than twenty four hours of negotiations of bickering. a lot of the corridors what's next more fighting more

negotiations and more bickering yes after a deal has been made here at the e.u. summit the next step is the european parliament they will have to approve this and we're already hearing reports that the leaders of the main political groups there don't accept the deal that was reached here and the president of the parliament martin schulz last night in a statement he had been sounding very angry at the proposed cuts and now we're already seeing the cots that the twenty seven leaders will impose on the budget he said he's not going to put a signature on something he sees as excessive so if we saw countries leaders coming here protective of their national interest we're going to see political parties protective of their own industries or whatever they represent in parliament and that is going to be a long long time of negotiations it could probably take about three months to get any answer out of there and we're seeing it's already negative david cameron came here saying that he wanted to bring down the general amount of the budget and in

fact he did he got the amount he wanted it's about nine hundred eight billion euros however what's interesting here is he's going to go back to the u.k. now just to explain that contribution is in fact he was able to protect the rebate of the u.k. but let's not forget that that rebate the money that the u.k. gets back to be you is hinged on the contribution to agriculture now the agriculture subsidies has been cut down therefore the rebate will also go down and therefore the contribution would fact go up we're already hearing from the euro skeptics especially coming from his own party saying that role well done you're coming back here saying that it's a victory for the u.k. but in fact we're going to be paying more just at a time when he's going to be posing the question he says of the referendum whether or not they should even be a member of the european union the twenty seven if he's reelected in twenty fifteen so whether or not this is a real victory for david cameron he will have to answer that when he gets back to be u.k. . well economist james medway says it is going to be

a tough time for the budget deal as it goes to the european parliament. constitutionally the well within their rights to reject the thing and send it back and have another go at writing this no whether they actually do that will probably depend on the fine print of the budget already reserved to you call them to said he would be able to support the steel and the heads of one of the major groups in the parliament the socialist group said there are likely to be supported so it's going to be a rocky ride i think this budget over the next few months cameron's right talk about this being like a reduction in a credit card limits and of course you can have your credit card limit reduced and still spend on spending more money you know that's almost certainly what's going to happen to britain over the next few years the amounts that britain is expected to pay into the may need for and will increase as a result of increased payments to a new member countries so he's going to pretend that this will show how britain can still be a force in europe how we can push the rest of europe around discourses over the

fact of course that he would have got anywhere in this without the support of angle of merkel in particular so he can he can try to push that line the you know he knows what he's do with europe and that we don't need to go so far as to step out of the european union but i wouldn't see the more euro skeptic members of his own party being particularly impressed by any of this well may now be breathing a sigh of relief after reaching an agreement on the unions budget. cuts perspiration is still high in spain where thousands have protested fresh government cuts and it's a crisis plagued education sector of full coverage of that for you on our website r.t.e. dot com. well president obama's choice to head the cia has faced

a tough confirmation hearing at the u.s. senate but of course it wasn't being. lawmakers who had put john brennan in the spotlight over his controversial drone program now the session itself was interrupted several times by protesters who had held up signs like stop cia murder and other signs they were of course referring to the use of drones by the united states for targeted strikes against suspected terrorists now john brennan down defended the program which he helped developed as quote ethical and just saying that a strike is well carefully vetted however human rights groups claim that the program has in fact led to a large number of civilian deaths and so the lawmakers hold brennan accountable for his counterterrorism policies are to get out as you can explains. what most people expected to hear was how does the u.s. government make decisions as to who should be on their kill list and mr brennan would certainly be the most appropriate person to ask because he is known to have

been in charge of the kill list and he's known as the architect of the administration's targeted assassinations program so the question of who the drones are targeting was critical and one of the senators asked john brennan whether there should be at least some judicial oversight over those executions by drones and here's what he said none of those actions or to determine past guilt for those actions that he took the decisions that are made or to take action so that we prevent future action to protect american lives so the rationale that john brennan gave for not going to court is that the administration is not in the business of punishing individuals but it's in the business of preventing attacks he basically says the u.s. government could execute people for what they haven't done yet you would expect a follow up questions from lawmakers as to how the administration determines the level of threat as these people constitute let's imagine an angry yemeni man who writes in his blog dad he hates america as you can see is wife died in a drone strike and he wants to take revenge is that enough to justify him being

killed by a drone there are so many questions about how the administration decides to put someone on their kill list and yet there was not near enough grilling on the part of the senators to get specific answers prior to the hearing a memo was released which the justice department handed over to congress and according to the memo the government can kill people overseas even without evidence that they are actively plotting against the u.s. the paper states that the u.s. would be able to kill a u.s. citizen or non-citizen overseas went to vote on quote an informed high level of social of the u.s. government determines that target is an imminent threat to them here for also suggest that such decisions would not be subject to judicial review and outlines a broad definition of what constitutes imminent through. everybody expected tough questions on drones but that did not happen john brennan got away with very broad answers like the program if saving lives and that you should take the

administration's word for it will drone warfare its consequences as well as the morality of it all are up for debate in cross talk in the next hour we'll hear how drone strikes may be breeding the very terror that authorities are seeking to eliminate. it's quite horrific in africa but it's getting worse i mean this is drawn be a small i. close to mali so that you've got the west african eye as well so it's trucking up so that we're going to draw on b.s. is all over africa i'm not sure what the supply really why are we doing this well it's me dave davies and she's the most effective recruitment tool for insurgents in the world david what do you think about that drones are an improvement on torture drones or an appointment to ground war and so the arguments were being given and yet we didn't have a ground war and you haven't we might need one eventually after the damage the drone strikes are doing but this is speak we're being told that this type of murder

is better then all of their human rights abuses. when the draft bill in the u.k. aims to clear the way for private online messages to be monitored by their governments. for of course there are concerns that they propose measures are taking national security a step too far. also for you third time lucky for georgia's president mikheil saakashvili as he almost failed to deliver his annual state of the nation speech this after parliament turns its back on him that and more stories for you after the break. there are twelve cities in the united states in which half of the people with hiv aids lives within a year of the diagnosis of. over sixty two percent of those i diagnosed with this is a problem that frankly is substantially preventable it was like the big elephant in

the room and nobody wanted to talk about they were really good public health campaigns people were really focused on this problem you certainly should be able to have a lot less ha lot less human suffering. sigrid laboratory. was to build the world's most sophisticated robot which on strictly doesn't give a darn about anything mission to teach why you should care about humans. this is why you should care watch only on the algae dot com.

is the captain of hair in a washing r.t.e. in the u.k. a document described by some as a snoopers charter will be given another push by the government this out for intelligence and security committee visuals said that the proposal lacks detail and the bill of designed to help authorities track online activity of citizens and to retrieve personal web data are to sarah furthur looks at how such measures could power up national security. the main area of concern surrounds this the draft communications data bill and proposals in it that critics say could see the public left wide open to having their facebook accounts or twitter e-mails read anything that they visit online the websites that they gate logs by the government now understandably these plants have proven hugely controversial with critics labeling it the snoop is charter now perhaps more concerning is the latest report by the intelligence and security committee and they'd like to see a nationwide surveillance regime implemented now the government say that they need

to do this to catch criminals and stop terrorism but there's lots of the members of the public saying where are safeguards when it comes to what we do online will seek more about this i'm now joined by professor and sneakily to the director studies security and intelligence studies at the university of akron thank you very much for joining us you are in support of the draft communications data verbal i heard you describe yourself at a recent talk of the skunk at the picnic if these fees and these proposals are so unpopular why are the government pushing them through all the time when government is pushing them through because the government realizes that they're needed some thirty million people use the internet to communicate with each other each day in the united kingdom people in this country fully accept that more than one hundred years. their telephone conversations are likely to be mine

if they're seen as a national security risk if there is a suspicion that a particular person is engaging serious organized crime sex trafficking or terrorism the government can then institute through as a member of the public who photo my e-mails for well if you don't want your e-mails . your not being gauged in any kind of illegal activity your e-mails won't be pro if you want if you want complete driver see don't write any letters to your friends don't speak to them on the telephone and don't send them photographs of yourself in jockeying that you very much for joining us to fester and see if the has that is the solution maybe is the time for a big log of thing hey someone is actually watching. london well jim kellogg from the open rights group told us that if they communications build is actually signed it could stretch the government's power way beyond its

walls so snoopers charters a bill that would allow the government to collect data about everybody on mining and data mining that data so it's not just about the guilty it's not just about records being kept it's not just about serious people serious criminals who need to be tracked it's about the potential of anybody in law enforcement to get hold of any information about anybody just about anything that you do would be detectable through the information trails you need the draft is being discussed by the home office the home office we're told by the joint committee that they should consult everybody on the basis of detailed proposals failing to do that what they're actually doing is inviting groups specialist groups in and saying so what do you think where might we improve things that is not the kind of consultation we need we need to home office of published detail proposals so that we can see whether

they're in any way workable what the damage would be and have a proper serious debate about those proposals. well you can join the online discussion about the u.k.'s controversial communications bill on our website you can head over to our team dot com to answer this question cast your vote and what you think the surveillance of people's internet activities will actually lead to now for those of you who have already cast their ballots what does that have to break down the outcome of the results for you so far so as you can see on this pie chart that we have for you right here nearly forty percent of you right here in the blue think that scramblers and then corruption will actually become an ordinary thing now just over a quarter of you believe that people will reject the practice and fight for their rights seventeen percent of you over there in the orange say that this will result in people leaving social networks all together and a slightly smaller percentage believe that while nothing is going to change so get on the website cast your ballot. access.

scuffles have broken out between former political prisoners and supporters of president saakashvili in the georgian capital now the violence how to rob did as saakashvili was going to deliver his annual state of the nation speech and the president was forced to change the venue for the address several times this after the country's parliament had refused to provide a platform or even listen to the leader in a new sign potentially of his waning power hailed in the west as an exemplary democratic ruler saakashvili had lost popular support over his crackdown on the opposition as well as over claims of human rights abuses will artie's alexei or chef ski has more. georgia has performed miracles we moved from being

a failed state will be one of the top business destinations in the world while it would be high to be academic freedom according to the world bank i'll be number one fighter with corruption you know worldwide and many people started to believe in the stations people started to believe them ocracy was mikhail saakashvili is georgia really a beacon of democracy and freedom not from your viewpoint when he's universities rectory refused to build a prayer room he helped organize a ten thousand strong peaceful student rally but it ended with his arrest and sentence of four and a half yes behind bars no. guards could just walk into our cell and start beating us for no reason the even put twenty year old students in wheelchairs and prison one of the inmates went insane because they showed him footage of how his wife was being raped. georgie thought he was spending his time with murderers and drug barons and stand he found himself among academics architects and righteous all jailed for having

a different opinion to the country's leadership. works as an advisor to the minister of the penitentiary system and used to be classmates with saakashvili she believes the astonishing number of prisoners in georgia during his reign was to a large extent personally driven. which is what he had often been joked at in school he directed his revenge against his former classmates when he became president most of them were either stripped of their businesses are put to prison in his presidency we've had twenty five thousand people in jail. shocking video of prisoner abuse in georgia in jails went viral and effectively diminished the president's party support by more than a half inch lost both election and control over the country it's not yet known where the second street will face prosecution of that was of course allegations for two hundred political prisoners a change of power a man with a chance to walk free because like us we will for many remain as georgia's president until october. he's already been transferred to the prime minister if you

want to be has already declared a national amnesty of political prisoners but experts say very social isolation may take several more years. in georgia. over to some other international news in brief right now. a suicide bomber has blown himself up near a security checkpoint in the northern mali city of galle but the attacker himself was the only casualty this is the first known suicide bombings since french troops entered the country whose northern half was ruled by islamist extremists france now once you are in peacekeepers to take over security as it prepares to end its mission there. a series of car bombs killed at least thirty six people in shiite areas of iraq on friday a sectarian and ethnic tensions intensify ahead of provincial elections in april now the bombings targeted an outdoor pet market in baghdad and a vegetable market in the hillah province south of the iraqi capital recent weeks

have seen insurgents carrying out a list daily attacks on security forces and civilians in an attempt to undermine the shiite led government. well the clock counting down to the sochi winter olympics is taking on work at the russian resort city is ramping up organizers say the final touches are being made in preparation for one of the world's biggest and most prestigious sporting events or two as andrew former is in sochi and reports on how the city has marked the start of the countdown. after six years of relentless construction i think she's entering the final home straight in terms of getting prepared for these games last night to mark the one year to go down there was a lavish ceremony here at the olympic park there were fireworks there's also a spectacular skating show that took place in the bolshoi ice time that was all very impressive. switched on across russia and if you are a fan tickets have gone on sale now the cheapest one you can pick up is something like fifteen dollars and if you're rich you fancy a bit of cash you can pick up

a ticket to watch the opening ceremony for something like fifteen hundred dollars i have been here for the last few days and have been very impressed with what i've seen most of the sporting venues are now up and running and that is staggering considering most of them had to be built from scratch there was one area of concern and that was the ski jumping center up in the mountains they are slightly behind and also over budget and that's present in the sack a senior member of the russian olympic committee yesterday but overall the message is very positive this is in the delivery setting i mean i'm just make from the black sea here people were swimming in there just minutes ago i was fifteen degrees these will be the first olympics that will be held in the subtropical climate and if you're coming here to watch in sport you will thoroughly enjoy simply because it's so easy to get around the olympic park is extremely compact which means you can walk around all the venues there within about twenty minutes which feasibly means you could watch something not the ice hockey the killing and all the skating events and then if you wanted to see on the second day you could get on

a train and within thirty minutes you'd be up in the mountains to watch the alpine events. coming up after the break here in our tina we'll have the latest in business news stay with us. speak your language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on all t.v. reporting from the world's hot spots fifty ip interviews intriguing story for you. live in trying. to find out more visit our big t.v.

show it's called. live. twenty minutes past the hour you're watching business argue with me about a shiny asco welcome to the program the south stream pipeline will start pumping

russia's gal's to europe no later than twenty fifteen that's according to gas problems chief alexei miller have met with president of republicans sarah has come a large go to conference the south stream pipeline will bring russia's gas to central and southern europe bypassing transit countries like ukraine and will cause russia and its partners billions of dollars and spending that money might not make economic sense if gas prices in europe keep falling at twenty thirteen some economists even go as far as to say energy prices have passed the point of return to historic highs thanks not only to the shale gas revolution but to other factors as well. a lot of the new gas which is going to come to look at the end of this decade is from actually not even from shale. from australia from the conventional less conventional gas in east africa it's very much a supply revolution two very highly.